LORD KEEPER. CXCV 



short and limited that this union has always failed, and 

 must be injurious both to the politician and to the philoso 

 pher, (a) To the politician, as, from variety of speculation, 

 he would neither be prompt in action nor consistent in 

 general conduct; (b) and as, from meditating upon the 

 universal frame of nature, he would have little disposition 

 to confine his views to the circle where his usefulness 

 might be most beneficial. To the philosopher, as powers 

 intended to enlarge the province of knowledge, and en 

 lighten distant ages, would be wasted upon subjects of 

 mere temporary interest, debates in courts of justice, and 



not possibly hurt or obstruct the good effect of any other truth whatsoever ; 

 for they all partake of one common essence, and necessarily coincide with 

 each other : and like the drops of rain, which fall separately into the river, 

 mix themselves at once with the stream, and strengthen the general current.&quot; 



Middleton. 



() &quot; Sed quid ego haec,&quot; says Cicero, &quot; quae cupio deponere, et toto 

 animo, atq: omni eura QiXoaofatv. Sic, inquam, in animo est: vellem 

 ab initio.&quot; 



&quot; Indeed, my lord, I greatly deceive myself, if in this hard season, I 

 would give a peck of refuse wheat for all that is called fame and honour in 

 the world.&quot; Such is the lamentation of Burke. 



&quot; If this,&quot; says Lord Bacon, &quot; be to be a Chancellor, I think if the great 

 seal lay upon Hounslow Heath, nobody would take it up.&quot; 



&quot; In the traditions of astrology, the natures and dispositions of men 

 are not without some colour of truth, distinguished from the predomi 

 nancies of planets ; as that some are by nature made and proportioned for 

 contemplation, others for matters civil, others for war, others for advance 

 ment, others for pleasure, others for arts, others for changeable course of 

 life, but none the union of the opposite qualities of extreme contemplation 

 and extreme action.&quot; De Aug. 



(6) &quot; Men of genius are rarely either prompt in action, or consistent 

 in general conduct. Their early habits have been those of contemplative 

 indolence, and the day dreams with which they have been accustomed 

 to amuse their solitude adapt them for splendid speculation and temperate 

 and practicable counsels.&quot;- Coleridge. See similar observations in Aiken s 

 Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose, in the Essay against inconsistency in our 

 expectations. 



